Saving Heroes
by ZeldaMoogle
Summary: A random-ish songfic I had inspiration for while listening to Nickelback's "Saving Me". Loosely based off my other story Golden Pendant with the same pairing, except it's kind of like an alternate timeline to the Immortals series. LinkxOC


**A/N:** Grr. I hate the double spacing. _-sigh-_ It makes the poetic spacing all funky. -.- Oh well.

So! A songfic. I'd really never heard of/seen one before I came on here, and they really caught my interest. I wrote one or two a while ago that didn't come out to my satisfaction, though, so I kinda dropped it...until recently. I recently discovered Nickelback's song "Saving Me" a while ago, and the music was just begging to have images written for them. Now if I could do some decent digital filmography (or whatever you want to call it) and create my own music video for it, I would just do that and be done with it. But, alas, I'm far from being a film dork, so I have no skill whatsoever in creating moving 3D people on a computer and making them look half-decent.

But enough of the daydreaming. The little blips in here are supposed to be thought of as episodal occurances that kinda string together to form a coherent story, if you think hard enough (at least the ones in the beginning--the later ones are rather directly related, despite myself _-shakes fist at Muse-_). But really the way I saw it as I was writing this was as a movie trailer-type thing with the song I was writing to playing in the background (I seem to have a rather irritating affinity for trailer-esque sequences itching to be written, which usually yanks me away from my greater projects...grr). Yes, they are _loosely_ based off the characters/events of myfanfiction-novel GP, but (as said before) these events are in a somewhat separate but parallel timeline. And if you want, you can listen to the song while you're reading, but the timing is a bit off on the reading unless you read _really_ fast (or already know what's coming, like I do =P).

So ANYway--this is what I typed out. Lyrics may not be precise, as I followed the song by ear to get them (too lazy to look 'em up). They're the multiple-line italizised part, and for those of you who are copyright nazis, I absolutely hold NO claim to the lyrics--just to my personal writing between them (aka the plot stuff). The lyrics are copyright whoever-writes-the-songs-for-Nickleback, period end of story.

Oh, one more thing: I still don't know if I'm writing songfics right (do they always have to take lines from an already-written story? Should the story lines between the lyrics be kept to a small paragraph or two?), so any helpful critizism would be appreciated! ^ _ ^

So without further ado--enjoy!

~Zel

* * *

_Prison gates won't open up for me._

_On these hands and knees I'm crawling—_

_I reach for you._

Dust and stone debris rained down on his blond head and prone body, grinding his wounds more deeply into his nerves. A tortured yell escaped him as he covered his head.

"Link!"

As the masonry settled around him, the warrior opened his eyes to search for an escape, but there was hardly room enough beneath the heavy stones for him to wiggle out from under a particularly painful rock that had his leg partly trapped.

"Link, are you alright? Link!"

The Hero answered the frantic calls with "I'm alive—just help me get out of here!"

_I'm terrified of these four walls;_

_These iron bars can't hold my soul._

Darkness enveloped her everywhere she turned. She couldn't even be sure she was turning, except that her nerves were connected to her brain, and they were adamant she was spinning in place.

The girl reached a hand out, looking for a wall or torch bracket of some sort, but was only rewarded with an eerie, ghostly force pressing back against her palm. That force translated into fear, and she made a frantic retreat only to feel the same force touch her back.

Terror made a grab for her throat, but she closed her eyes and fought it off with a vengeance.

_All I need is you—come, please, I'm calling._

_I scream for you—hurry, I'm falling._

"Link!"

"Tanya! I'm coming!"

"LINK!"

"Hang on!"

_Show me what it's like to be the last one standing;_

_And teach me wrong from right, and I'll show you what I can be._

There was a flurry of smacks and clicks, a forceful thud, and one combatant was lying on her back in the dust.

The wooden point retreated from the hollow of her neck, and next a gauntleted hand entered her field of vision. Tanya looked up into sparkling crystal eyes and the Hero's grinning face; she couldn't resist smiling back.

"How come I can never seem to get you down here?"

"'Cause it's better to be the last one standing. That way I can do this—"

She had already put her hand in his. He took advantage of that to yank her up on her feet and trap her against him.

_Say it for me, say it to me_

_And I'll leave this life behind me—_

_Say it if it's worth saving me._

"How bad is it?"

"You'll be fine, we just—"

"How—bad?!"

He averted his gaze, unable to look into those knowing emerald orbs as he forced the truth between his lips.

"Bad." His voice was a whisper. "Possibly fatal."

The girl sighed and laid her head back into his cupped hands. "Wonderful."

"Well…" The Hero cracked the tiniest sliver of a smile and bent over her bruised face to watch her expression. "I could always say it's not, and you could believe it's not. Then maybe it wouldn't be."

"But would it be worth that?" After a moment of quiet thought, Tanya smiled mischievously. "Well, it would be worth one thing…"

_Heaven's gates won't open up for me—_

_With these broken wings, I'm falling._

_All I see is you._

The purest white light, brighter than she had ever imagined possible, flashed before her eyes. She flinched and made a futile attempt to shade her eyes, but her eyesight was already shot for the next ten minutes at least.

"Kellyanne."

"That's my name—don't wear it out," Tanya requested sarcastically.

"This is no time for levity; you have a task to complete."

The girl snorted. "Uh, that's a bit of a problem. You see, I've already failed it—obvious enough when I'm even having this conversation with you."

A figure resolved before her, a mere shadow to the girl against the blinding backdrop. "Kellyanne, you will return, and you will complete your task. I have that power, and I will use it—you cannot afford to fail in your task. But be warned: I cannot do this again.

"You have one last chance."

_These city walls ain't got no love for me;_

_I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story._

Menacing stone rose up on all sides, a formidable maze to him in his present condition. Sounds of fighting echoed back to him from all over against them, disorienting the warrior further. His breath came in agonizing gasps, burning his lungs and throat as he darted in ever-slowing sprints through the maze.

Finally, he reached his objective—the looming central tower of Hyrule Castle.

Up there was where his final battle was to occur. The Hero braced himself before continuing his pilgrimage to the Moment of Destiny.

_I scream for you—come, please, I'm calling._

_All I need from you—hurry, I'm falling._

"Link! Where are you?"

"Tanya, no! Get out of here!"

"Forget that—I'm getting _you_ out of here! Where are you?!"

"Tanya—just hang on. Don't—"

"—Be ridiculous, Link. Tell me how to get to you, and I'll come!"

_Show me what it's like to be the last one standing;_

_And teach me wrong from right, and I'll show you what I can be._

There was no room to spare—either time or space. Every half-second counted in this duel, every inch of maneuvering room he could make use of.

No thinking, no qualms, no hesitation—no mistakes.

Link _would_ be the last one standing, or…well, he'd be dead anyway, so killing himself over it (even metaphorically) would be beating a dead horse.

But there was just one complication he hadn't prepared for:

Tanya being cornered by the ledge.

Her scream for help cut through him like a dull but large knife. His spine did more than tingle—for a second it made him shudder spasmodically. It was almost all the second Ganon needed to ensure his victory.

Almost.

_Say it for me, say it to me_

_And I'll leave this life behind me._

_Say it if it's worth saving me._

_Hurry, I'm falling._

Link instinctively parried the blow—probably more viciously than he needed to, but it accomplished what he needed. Ganon's enormous weapon seemed to leap from his hand like a scalded cat, giving the Hero his chance to aid his cornered partner.

Tanya's expression was a cross between fear and determination as she clung to one of numerous crenellations around the tower wall with one hand. With the sabre in her left, she was swinging ferociously at the monsters seeking to pull her down.

"Tanya, hold on!"

The Hero charged into the fray with a vengeance. Anything that moved got a sword through its chest, or whatever limb happened to be within reach.

The next time he looked up, though, everything seemed to slow down until the only thing he could feel was paralyzing horror.

_All I need is you—come, please, I'm calling;_

_And I scream for you—hurry, I'm falling._

Her cry of utter terror—of his name—tore him to his core. The Hero blinked, his mind frantically trying to deny what his eyes were telling him, but the truth was harsh and cruel.

Tanya was falling off the high tower, and he was too far away to save her.

_Show me what it's like to be the last one standing;_

_And teach me wrong from right, and I'll show you what I can be._

He struggled through the monstrous crowd anyway, blasting away the living blockades with magic despite his fatigue. In desperation he clung to the last shreds of hope that one of his few inhuman qualities could just possibly help him save her.

Link broke from the crowd of monsters in time to see her tip completely over. Her hand was the only limb barely within reach…

_Say it for me, say it to me_

_And I'll leave this life behind me._

_Say it if it's worth saving me._

Her fingers just brushed his before it was too late.

Not a sound escaped him for a full five seconds as his eyes glazed over with tears. He couldn't bear to watch her now. A tear dripped down his cheek; a contained sob shuddered through his chest.

But then, there was a triumphant roar from somewhere nearby—from a dragon. Link jerked his head up hopefully, searching the skies.

A jubilant cheer broke out somewhere above him as the amethyst dragon swooped low over the tower, hovering only long enough for her single passenger to lightly drop to the stone floor beside him.

The Hero returned Tanya's triumphant but pale-faced grin with one of his own.

"You didn't seriously think they'd get rid of me that easily, did you?"

Link rolled his eyes but laughed with relief.

Amidst the bloody remains of an ongoing, desperate battle, the two heroes indulged in a tight embrace.

"I did think I'd lost you…I didn't know Vanessa would return so quickly," he murmured into her hair.

_Say it for me, say it to me_

_And I'll leave this life behind me._

_Say it if it's worth saving me._

With the fight against his greatest nemesis won, Link let the Master Sword clatter to the stones and turned his attention toward Tanya. She grinned at him and also let her blade fall.

"It's over. It's finally over."

Link quickly closed the distance between them as she moved toward him; they met in the center of the tower. Her eyes sparkled like sun-drenched meadows in her blood-smeared, ash-coated face. The warrior had never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

Gently he cupped her face in his bloody, gauntleted hands and drank in the emerald beauty of those eyes.

"What are you thinking?" she asked quietly, wrapping her arms around his neck. The boy smiled impishly.

"About how much I love you."

Link caught her lips in a deep kiss, precluding any vocal answer she might've given.


End file.
